Irregular ren-ditions / 2

A collection of links and information from recent journeys through life and the internet. Irregular describes the schedule and the path.


A Century of Dining Out – So if you miss eating out as much as you did pre-pandemic here’s a treat. Peruse menus from 1841 – 1941. You can admire them for the art or for the dinner faire. There are menus for restaurants and banquets. Be sure to check out the Broiled Squirrels a la Maitre d’Hotel at the Fifth Annual Reunion of the Railroad Conductors’ Life Insurance Company. For a deeper dive check out the other Grolier Club Online Exhibitions. Thanks to Paul for sharing a link to the Magazines and the American Experience Exhibition which I originally intended to highlight here.

All Aboard! –  get these free sample train coloring pages from the Dover Coloring Book series. I used to sell lots of the nature related ones and the best thing about them was they usually included a permission statement on the first page for copying for personal or classroom use. You can sign up to regularly get these samples somewhere, but you’ll have to explore the Dover site for that. I have saved far too many of these files by right clicking on the coloring page and saving it to my computer. You can just print the .jpg file out or paste it into a Word page so you can easily manipulate the size. You can get more at http://www.coloringbookday.com/ .

Audubon’s Birds of America at Bowdoin College – One of the silver linings to the COVID disaster is that fascinating on-line opportunities have proliferated from colleges, non-profits, and individuals. Bowdoin college has these and some pre-covid recordings to watch in it’s page-turning events. It’s probably enough to say I was attracted by the idea that each event shows a page of Audubon’s double Elephant folio (that’s a BIG book), but what got us there on March 5 was an opportunity to hear our friend, Scott Weidensaul share the story of the book, Birds of Maine. His presentation will appear there if it hasn’t already.

Emerson and his Friends – The story went something like this when a customer noticed the Emerson pins available at the Walden Pond gift shop where a friend of mine works. He asked, “How about pins for Lake and Palmer?” With all my study of Emerson lately I completely forgot about them. Seriously, the link takes you to a Royal Albert Hall performance. I missed one of their performances at the Rock Festival at the Pocono Raceway in 1972 (I do have a limited double album vinyl press their performance released in 2019). My girlfriend at the time took me as a graduation present but storms and technical problems extended the concert to well past when we could stay with ELP playing at dawn the next day. I finally got to see Palmer a couple years ago after both Emerson and Lake left us. He played a short set before Todd Rundgren and Yes and I would have rather he kept playing rather than Todd for sure and even Yes. You can get an inkling of his performance starting at 1:01:48 in the Albert Hall Performance. Funny, my favorite was always Emerson, but I have a new appreciation for Palmer as well as Lake through his performance in several concerts available on youtube and his solo of one of my favorite ELP songs, You Turn Me On.

Irregular ren-ditions

A collection of links and information from recent journeys through life and the internet. Irregular describes the schedule and the path. It’s a sort of occasional Magical Mystery Tour that helps me share these links as well as preserve them for myself.

Fasnacht with cup cheese. An annual specialty for me from my great grandmother’s traditions.

Today in History, February 17The House of Representatives, breaking a tie in the Electoral College brought an end to one of the most acrimonious presidential campaigns in U.S. history and resolved a serious Constitutional crisis.  I learn lots of things from the Library of Congress. Most come by way of email lists I have subscribed to or the inevitable rabbit holes they lead me down. Since there is a somewhat, I believe, false lull in the political turmoil (at least by comparison of the past four years, this link struck me. It sounds too much like today though it refers to 1801. You’ll have to click on it to see who the declared winner was.

Virtual Woodworking Show – In January of 2020 I finally got to travel to the Woodworking Show in Timonium Maryland after missing it because of work even though I worked in the area very close to when it was held. I traveled with Mike and his wife Lois from our scrollsaw club unaware that he would die just two months later. It was a good day. This year the show is virtual and stretches over all the weekends in March. Visiting the vendors is the best part and free. Classes cost a little something but are worth it.

Perseverance – Seeing a live space event, like the landing of the Mars Lander Perseverance on February 18 can still bring tears to my eyes. Being a part of these great explorations is pretty amazing these days watching it live from the Jet Propulsion Lab control room via my iPad. With this link the adventure can continue as you can virtually follow the rover around mars. I’m sure there will be additional Reflection links for the Mars Helicopter that rode along and of course pictures.

Bang – Whether they truly were “America’s answer to Black Sabbath” or a misfire, Bang was a Philadelphia group I discovered browsing the LP bins in the early seventies when an interesting dust jacket would result in a purchase. I rediscovered that they still have an internet presence with some free ringtone downloads if you’re into that kind of thing. Maybe it’s time I abandon the old man ringtone I have… a ringing phone. And on YouTube there are some songs from the album like The Queen.

Emerson’s Complete Works – In 12 volumes that you can read online or download from the Internet Archive. This search gives you a complete matching set from the Boston Public Library.

Magical Mystery Tour Frederick

Craig, Gath, and Duncan discuss Gath’s lack of color in his writings.

The playlist for our April 2019 Magical Mystery Tour to Frederick MD.

  1. Dublin Roasters’ Coffee – Great coffee, best according to Craig.
  2. One Million Liter Test Sphere – Weren’t there, just near and forgot to mention it at coffee because the great conversation distracted me.
  3. Spook Hill – The soldiers DID push our car… forward AND backward.
  4. National War Correspondents Memorial Arch – And Gapland or Gathland, or both as the sign above states.
  5. Washington Monument State Park
  6. Exotic Lumber – No one had to have a board on their head for the rest of the trip. I bought only short pieces.
  7. Record Exchange – What??? No Uriah Heep? But loved the new vinyl.
  8. Earthly Elements – Great rock shop with commemorative dino coins.
  9. White Rabbit Gastropub – Great secret spot hidden in an alley.

Magical Mystery Tour Bethlehem

April Fool’s day came a day late when our Magical Mystery Tour plans were a bit altered, but not cancelled. Some outside stops, though listed here, where not made and the cemetery tour was a drive-through, although we were briefly convinced that the gate we had driven through was locked behind us.

Craig takes a ride in the propane exhibit.

Duncan checks out the big machines at NMIH.

Magical Mystery Tour Lancaster County

On June 26 Craig, Duncan, and I traveled to the following locations to see the sites and some graves of my ancestors who lived in those areas.

The Postcard Bldg

Newcomer’s Corner

 

Magical Mystery Tour Baltimore

IMG_3265We departed from our usual Monday tour and went on a Tuesday in order to visit the Museum on Industry in Baltimore and see the Linotype there. It was, in fact, a relatively normal tour, normal in the way that it was NOT like our usual… unusual spots tours. It was non-the-less a great day pretty much spent in two museums that are very much worth the visit. It was especially good visiting the B&O with Craig in tow, who has become a walking database of train history and who was able to answer our questions and point out unusual aspects of the collection even better than the local docents there.

We visited:

Magical Mystery Tour Union Canal Part Deux

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Celestine Sample we got from Skip.

On November 17th the intrepid travelers completed an investigation into the canal which once connected Reading to Middletown which they began over a year ago. The stops included an investigation into the geology of Pennsylvania and beyond and treasures hidden away in basement caves. The following links help guide us.

Magical Mystery Tour – Princeton

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Jolene attempts to buy a hot dog from one of the non-abstract sculptures on the trip

It was a Special Edition tour where our significant others were invited along and it wasn’t even a Monday!!! So we had our pick of “closed Monday” locations and traveled to Grounds for Sculpture in New Jersey and just a few points of interest besides. Unfortunately while still one person up from usual trips we were only at 2/3 of what was planned since last minute circumstances prevented Craig and Sue from attending. Hard telling what additional trouble we may have gotten in with Craig’s camera and comments added. Anyways, we visited, in the following order: